Survivor remembers D-Day on anniversary of the landings

Ron Collyer is one of just a handful of veterans from the 1939-45 campaign still able to commemorate the part the landings played in smashing the Axis powers and bringing the world’s bloodiest conflict to an end

Seven decades ago as allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in a tide of liberation which would turn the fortunes of the Second World War, keen pianist Ron Collyer was playing cards aboard a commercial transport awaiting his turn to join the D-Day operations.

Ron, now 90, is one of just a handful of veterans from the 1939-45 campaign still able to commemorate the part the landings played in smashing the Axis powers and bringing the world’s bloodiest conflict to an end.

Conscripted at the age of 18, Ron had been sent to Lockerbie for training being posted to the reconnaissance corps.

“The first thing they told you was the reconnaissance corps was notorious for taking the most casualties,” recalled Ron, “but we never took any notice. It might sound strange but we didn’t think about being afraid, we just got on with things.”

After basic training Ron was transferred to Kent and learnt to swim at Margate, a ghost town after frightened residents had fled, fearful of an invasion. Ironic then that it was our forces which were in the midst of planning a major breach.

Both a driver and a gunner, Ron was part of a three-man team in a heavy armoured vehicle. The comrades spent hours waterproofing the truck on Margate prom and getting accustomed to driving through water.

There was no official talk of invasion but it was clear something - and something major - was afoot.

Monty paid a visit and buoyed the troops with a pep talk while during off-duty hours Ron and his fellows would play cards or listen intently to the Germans on the radio, Lord Hawhaw and all that while waiting for the signal for the off.

During the last days of May, Ron and his regiment drove from Margate to London, a stream of armoured vehicles with hardly a civilian in sight.

Embarking on a ship, the troops sailed out into the Channel where they spent a week, waiting for the invasion to happen and the Normandy beaches to be taken before able to join the throng.

As a search and tell unit it was the reconnaissance corps’ job to get ahead of advancing troops and report back on enemy movements, but the infantry needed to go in first, to clear the way for others to follow without fear of resistance. The beaches needed to be secured and inroads made into the hinterland before Ron and his buddies could do their part.

Ron Collyer from Earl Shilton

The week-long wait appears to be have been a strange lull for Roy and his fellows. He explained: “We knew something was happening but we felt like we were out of the way.

“We didn’t feel like we were under threat, the RAF had mastery of the skies so we didn’t think we were in danger of being bombed. It was a funny feeling all round. There must have been hundreds of ships in the Channel but they were all spread about.

“When we did land it was like a continuous wave, there were thousands of people on Gold beach where British troops landed.

By then the place had been cleared so we got off the beach almost immediately.

“I remember it looked strange seeing just piles and piles of lifejackets. Everyone put a lifejacket on when they were ready to disembark but when you hit the beach you threw the thing off. There were literally mountains of them.”

The corps orders were to make for Bayeaux and join up with other units. As part of the reconnaissance corps Ron’s job was to get ahead of the front line and gather information on the enemy, taking it back to the allied forces to allow for reactive battle plans.

This would involve ‘snaking’ along the roads, empty of all but armed forces vehicles.

“There was no resistance and we were clever enough to get out of the way if we spotted trouble up ahead. Obviously we would have to return and report all we had seen.”

Ron’s short stint in Normandy came to an abrupt end just a few months later when he was injured and repatriated to a military hospital in Carlisle, back home in Blighty.

While being treated here he met his future wife, a nurse, Jean, who he married in 1945, After some months convalescing Ron was dispatched off to Europe again serving in the tank regiment and seeing action in Greece and Egypt before returning home to civvy street in 1947.

Reunited with Jean the couple settled in Earl Shilton where they enjoyed many happy years and had two children with Ron working in the hosiery trade and Jean retraining to become a dental nurse.

Now a widower Ron is a stalwart of the Royal British Legion and is involved in organising various aspects of this year’s commemorations, both for D-Day and for the start of the First World War.

He said: “I’m looking forward to just being here to see it. I feel very, very lucky to have lived so long. I’m sorry my wife is not with me but I try and keep going.

“It’s funny because when I was hospitalised along with dozens of other casualties we were treated as heroes. But we weren’t heroes, it was the poor devils still out there fighting, who lost their lives and are in the French battlefield cemeteries, they were the real heroes.

“I lost a good number of my mates who were involved in fighting around Bayeaux and I have been out to the cemeteries many times. It is important to mark these events and remember the people who died, especially for the youngsters of today. We all need to remember the sacrifice that was made, when you visit the cemeteries and see the number of headstones it is overwhelming.

“I attend a lot of legion events and know a good few veterans, some who have served for decades, but there is no one I know now who served in the Second World War.

“Soon the people who remember it first hand will be gone. We need to make sure their stories do not disappear.”